Former Rebel great: Canyon Springs basketball success ‘all about these kids’
This isn’t another story about UNLV basketball great Freddie Banks. He made a lot of 3-pointers for the Rebels in the mid-1980s, helped them reach the Final Four and, depending on whom you talk to, is the best high school player in Las Vegas history.
This is a story about the Canyon Springs High players he coaches.
For Banks, his playing achievements are in the past. He’s proud of what happened but prefers it not be mentioned. He is focused on the now.
Canyon Springs is one of the state’s best programs because of its players — a group of young men Banks passionately calls “my kids.”
“It’s not about me,” he said. “It’s about these kids.”
The Pioneers, who last week won their fourth Sunrise Regional championship in six seasons, play Northern Nevada’s Bishop Manogue today in the state semifinals at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno.
The Pioneers run up and down the court with such speed and efficiency that comparisons to Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV teams are easy to make.
Canyon Springs plays with such hustle and intensity, especially on defense, that it resembles those Bill Bobier-coached Valley High teams Banks played for.
But it’s not the system that has helped the program reach an elite status. It’s the players who run the system, Banks insists.
If they win, Banks is quick to credit his players — athletes such as Kevin Legardy and Alexander Spaight, who are so dynamic and quick in the backcourt that the opposition can’t keep pace. If they lose, Banks shoulders the blame and gets tough on them, just as Bobier was tough on him.